In the winding lanes of the Surrey countryside near the village of Shere, where hedgerows frame dramatic views and weekend cyclists stop for tea, the stillness of an overcast afternoon was broken when immigration officers descended on an Indian café.
Mandira’s Kitchen, a maker of small-batch Indian ready meals that counts Nigella Lawson as a customer, was subject to an “intimidating” visit by immigration and police officers, who streamed through the front and back doors and clambered over a fence to gain access.
According to owner Mandira Sarkar, five staff were present during the raid on September 17: three born in Pakistan, two in India. All were able to prove they had the right to work in Britain.
“They came in and separated the staff. They were not allowed to speak to each other. And then they started asking questions. We have a couple of students, so they said things like, ‘When was the last time you went to university? What is your attendance record like? When was your last assignment submitted?’”
She said another employee was quizzed about his wife — also a Mandira’s Kitchen worker — and their 11-year-old son. “They said to him, ‘You’re Shabbir,’ and he said, ‘No, I’m not. I’m Shamrriaz.’ And then he had to prove he wasn’t Shabbir, because obviously they had the wrong information. It was all very intrusive and intimidating.”
The staff member corroborated Sarkar’s version of events. He said he was not allowed to answer his phone when the café’s general manager called him as he was being questioned by the officers. “The guys said, ‘Don’t take [the] call’ and ‘Don’t send a message.’ And then the guys [were] questioning and questioning.”
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Sarkar, who was on a once-in-a-lifetime safari holiday in the Serengeti at the time, said it was fortunate her staff could quickly retrieve documents to prove their legal status. “None of us walk around with our passports, do we? So the staff were scrambling to show university letters and share codes.”
Mandira Sarkar and her team. She was on holiday in Africa but five staff were present at the time of the raid
TIMES MEDIA
The business has held a “sponsor licence” for a year — after a protracted two-year process to obtain it. This grants companies the ability to employ foreign students or workers who do not otherwise have the right to work in the UK.
Mandira’s Kitchen has sponsored two members of staff in that period: a chef and a kitchen manager. Sarkar explained: “Because Mandira’s Kitchen is such a niche, regional business, certain roles, especially chefs, really do need people who already have the experience and depth of knowledge in this very specific style of cooking.”
Paperwork left at the premises shows the raid was authorised by the Home Office under section 179 of the 2003 Licensing Act, which allows immigration officers to enter premises licensed for alcohol sales, such as pubs and restaurants, to check for illegal workers.
Sarkar has submitted a freedom of information request to try to find out the reason, but her general manager, who was on the phone to one of their staff as events unfolded, overheard an officer say: “‘What’s her problem? We are acting on a tip-off’.”
Nichola Carter, an immigration lawyer and partner at Keystone Law, said her firm had received increased enquiries from companies who have either had a visit from immigration officers or are concerned about the possibility of one.
“[Visits] have already increased massively in terms of enforcement action against sponsor licence holders. We’ve seen that last year, starting in care homes but moving into other sectors, and it’s absolutely going to escalate,” she said.
This was confirmed by a Home Office spokesperson, who said: “Under this government, enforcement action nationwide has increased, with visits and arrests up by around 50 per cent on the previous 12 months, and we will be stepping up that action further in the year ahead.
“Illegal working undermines honest employers, undercuts local wages, and fuels the criminal industry of immigration crime. This government is determined to clamp down on that illegal activity in every sector where it occurs, including the hospitality sector.”
Police and immigation officers on the Mandira’s Kitchen CCTV
MANDIRA’S KITCHEN
Although Mandira’s Kitchen was wrongly targeted — both Surrey police and the Home Office confirmed that “no offences were identified” — the raid comes amid a wider crackdown, which appears to be yielding results.
Home Office figures show that a record number of sponsor licences for skilled workers were revoked in the three months to June this year. Slightly older data shows that the number of fines issued as a result of visits conducted by immigration officers peaked in the second quarter of 2024, with 568 penalties issued, costing businesses £21.5 million in just three months.
Carter’s advice for employers with immigrant workers is to make sure they have all the relevant information and documents securely stored in places that are easily accessible for staff when none of the management team are present.
“Organisations need to have an action plan in place, particularly if the owners are away, so you’ve got staff on site who know how to deal with these kinds of visits, as junior staff in particular have a tendency to panic,” said Carter. She added that the visit to Mandira’s Kitchen was “quite heavy handed”. “It’s usually a couple of officers that will visit or they can do an electronic check.”
Sarkar said she understood the need for checks but added: “It was the manner of the check that was awful. They came into the café; there were customers there. So they were going up and down … they blocked doors and bathrooms.
“A sponsor licence is a very hard thing to get, so why would I get one and then be running an illegal racket in the Surrey Hills? It’s beyond ridiculous. It feels like our personal space has been violated.”